Sunday, August 30, 2015

The famous actor Mikhail Svetin died this morning in
Gatchina at the age of 85.

"The actor Mikhail Svetin died today at about 6:45
am,’’ RIA Novosti cites a representative of the Leningrad region.

A week ago, he was hospitalized with a stroke in Gatchina
in the central district hospital. The actor underwent an emergency operation,
after which he was placed in a resuscitation department, but all doctors'
efforts were in vain.

During his long career Mikhail Svetin starred in such
films as ‘It Cannot Be!’ (1975), ‘The Twelve Chairs’ (1977), ‘Beloved Woman of
the Mechanic Gavrilov’ (1981), ‘The Magicians’ (1982) and many others.

Friday, August 28, 2015

He worked on such films as 'Solaris,' 'Ocean's Twelve'
and 'The Last Airbender.'

T.C. Williams, an Emmy Award winner for outstanding
achievement in makeup, died Aug. 8 of an apparent heart attack at his home in
Frazier Park, Calif., his wife, Jodi, said. He was 49.

Williams worked as a plaster foreman or mold maker on
such films as My Giant (1998), Solaris (2002), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), The Last
Airbender (2010), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) and Fantastic Four
(2015). He also contributed effects to Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
(1993).

Williams won his Emmy for Son of the Morning Star, a 1991
telefilm about the battle of Little Bighorn that starred Gary Cole as George
Armstrong Custer and aired on ABC.

Born outside Las Vegas, Williams went to Chatsworth High
School in Los Angeles and attended makeup school.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Peter
Kern believed there was hardly any difference ​​between life and art. His
passion was Insolence. On Wednesday August 26, he died at the age of 66 years.

Insolence
is an underrated quality. Without consideration for losses, it proposes
breaches in the walls of the Convention, of good taste, the illusion bastions
an oh-so-perfect world. Peter Kern, who was 66 years died after a long illness,
actor and director, was one of the last great insolent. Between life and art, they
hardly made a difference, because there was clearly none accordingy to his
attitude and his loud voice.

In
1949 he was born in Vienna Leopoldstadt, his proletarian origin coined
worldview, self-understanding and creativity. He started with the Vienna Boys'
Choir, at 19 he was hired for a German version of the musical "Hair"
and went on tour, that brought him a role offer for Peter Lilienthal teleplay
"Jakob von Gunten" the New German Cinema. In the seventies he was
part of a steady movemen workingt in front of the camera, including Rainer
Werner Fassbinder, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Wim Wenders and Werner Schroeter.
Also in the theater could where he could succeed in Vienna, in the course of
his career he was seen in almost all major theaters of German-speaking
countries and also worked together with Christoph Schlingensief.

1983
produced roles in the Philippines for Kurt Raab’s Exploitation drama "The
Island of the Bloody Plantation", a little later he plunged himself into
directing and stayed until his death on 30 cinema projects. His love and
passion had always been given to the outsiders, Abgedrängten whether in
documentary-inspired game or in stylized documentaries -. About "cuddling,
smooching, Jubilieren" about the gay scene in Dusseldorf with his own
homosexuality, he never kept vibrant.

Core
cinematic oeuvre is unmistakable: Mostly are the independent low to no-budget
items, scenically an idiosyncratic hybrid of Arte Povera and opulence,
overambitious on principle. Nuclear often occupied amateur actors alongside
theater professionals and well-known performers such as Helmut Berger or Josef
Hader. In the spirit Fassbinder interested him the friction between the figures
and the people behind them. His second great role model was Luchino Visconti -
"The Last Summer of the rich" core finale, at this year's Berlinale
successfully presented work was clearly inspired by the poetic pathos of the
Italian.

If
the atmosphere was suffocating at film festivals in anesthetic cultured
fussiness, core Europe had reliably the antidote. His art could like it or not,
they never let get cold. That was apparently the latest in audience discussions
after his films: The reactions ranged from enthusiastic to rage, often led to
heated arguments in which the director exploded deficient thoughtful questions
with gusto. Hostility inspired him. A core of detractors wrote: "Please
stop now making more films." His answer? "King Kong's tears", a
new work.

In
solid belief in a healthy provocation culture he drew upon interviews and
appearances before the mallet of the fine blade and fumbled ball with carrot
and stick. As corpulent balancing personality with well-kept wardrobe he could
flatter in dignified Theater German tender, but as bettors and rumble. The
wildest insults sounded gracefully out of his mouth. They were directed against
all forms of exclusion and xenophobia, the hypocrisies of the affluent society,
time and again against the Austrian cultural policy, of which he felt neglected
- 2010, he nevertheless received the Merit Award in Gold of the Province of
Vienna.

Actually,
he just wanted to be loved, but it was also his followers not always easy. He
once said: "If I yell at you, please do not be equal to hurt. If I insult,
take it as a token of love. . Remember, I am an Austrian, insane, hysterical,
hypocritical and undemocratic "In beautiful documentary portrait"
core "by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala he bared himself mentally and
physically, talks seemingly openly about fears and desires to someday casually
interject:" About the real Peter Kern you will learn nothing, throughout
the film. "The truth of this irreplaceable exceptional artist was probably
precisely in this contradiction.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Richard Lon Cohen Feb. 3, 1952 - Aug. 20, 2015. It is
with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Richard Lon Cohen by
cardiac arrest on August 20th, 2015. Rich was the cherished husband of Ria
Sinnige, beloved son of Muriel (Mitzi) Cohen and the late Julius Cohen.

Rich passionately loved his daughter Mara and his
son-in-law Gil Reinin, and was a proud grandfather of Juni and Eitan. He was
the dear older brother of Jeff, Gary, Todd, Bob, Adam and their families. After
marrying Ria, Rich became a dear member of her Dutch family and they also cared
deeply for him.

Rich's love of art and his innate sense of design will
live on through his extensive body of work. Starting out as an illustrator, and
after hanging out around Ohio State University one of the hotbeds of cgi development,
Rich went on to become one of the early contributors to computer animation and
digital visual effects.

He worked for Pacific Data Images and later for ILM on
films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Death Becomes Her. Other work
included matte paintings on The Hudsucker Proxy, Starship Troopers and The
Santa Claus 2. Rich was part of a team that received an Academy Award
nomination for visual effects.

In 1999, Rich and Ria moved to Canada where he taught
visual effects at Sheridan College, a collegereknowned for its computer
animation program. He also taught painting in the Art Fundamentalsprogram.Rich
had amazing taste and a strong sense of design.

He and Ria bought a house on the Niagara Escarpment, that
was something out of an architectural magazine. It was the kind of house you'd
see pictures of but never expect to see in person. It was also exquisitely
furnished, with much of the furniture created by Rich himself.

Rich's woodworking even led to the making of guitars. He
was intensely focused when he found something he was interested in and stopped
at nothing to get the results he wanted. Everything he created ended up being
of professional quality.

In December of 2009, Richard had a stroke which resulted
in a weakened left side, loss of balance and losing the use of his left arm.
This was a major blow for someone so interested in creating both digital and
physical things. In more recent years, as a result of the stroke, he developed
chronic pain which no medication seemed to control.

In spite of this pain, he still managed to begin a new
interest Â…Â….bonsai treesÂ…Â…Â….which he pursued with his typical vigor!Rich
impacted so many lives and we will miss his laughter, his enthusiasm and his
love..In memory of Rich, please plant a treeÂ…Â…....and if you'd like to, turn
it into a bonsai!Funeral services will be held in San Rafael at Mt. Tamalpais
Cemetery, 2500 Fifth Avenue (Kol Shalom section), August 28, Friday at 11:00
am.

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.